Published 12:00 am, Thursday, May 2, 2013

His lawyer, Danielle Briand, thinks that since ICE is considering their request for a stay of removal, Islas ultimately will be given the stay and allowed to remain in the United States.

If Islas is not deported, it will mean he can work at a job that is low-paying for most Americans but allows him to earn the money he needs to support his wife and son in their village in the Mexican state of Puebla.

Islas' case has gotten high visibility because of the support he's received from our U.S. senators and representative, as well as from many in the community who have made their voices heard on his behalf.

We hope ICE will use its discretion and grant Islas an indefinite stay, as he has requested, for two reasons.

First, Congress is in the midst of debating immigration reform. The result could directly affect the ability of immigrants like Islas to stay in the United States.

Second, it's the humanitarian thing to do, for a man who has no criminal record (charges against him resulted from a case of mistaken identity and were erased), works hard and came here because he could not earn a living wage at home.

His five border crossings -- he was caught and returned to Mexico the first four times -- while a violation of our immigration laws, show how desperate such people are.

Without low-paid Mexican workers, the vast farms of California would have vegetables rotting on the ground and fruit spoiling on the trees. Without undocumented workers, hotel rooms and offices would go uncleaned and there would be fewer people taking orders at fast-food restaurants. They are not the jobs that most Americans with a high school or college education would choose.

With a quota system that makes it extremely difficult for Mexicans to immigrate legally, and companies that turn a blind eye to the status of the people they hire, we should look at undocumented workers as people caught in an intolerable system rather than as criminals.

Now Playing:

With up to 11 million undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States, we need to fix the system and give them a path to legal residency. The bill in our General Assembly to give undocumented immigrants driver's licenses, making them able to buy insurance, is an example of how to make everyone safer and make the undocumented responsible for their actions on the road.

We hope that Congress will pass immigration reform that is progressive and not punitive, and that ICE will give Jose Maria Islas and others like him a chance to continue their search for the American dream.